Forum - View topicREVIEW: The Apothecary Diaries Season 1 Part 1 BD Anime Review
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Covnam
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I'll definitely be picking this up at some point, though I'm going to try to wait and see if they release a complete set sometime down the line if I can't get it for a good price on sale before then.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18592 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I've been purchasing a lot less series on BR in recent years; pretty much only ones that either aren't readily available streaming or which I could see myself rewatching multiple times. This is definitely one of them. Forgot this was already out, so it will be part of my next order.
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MFrontier
Posts: 14981 |
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I'd definitely be interesting in watching the shorts legally subbed.
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FanGamer24
Posts: 127 |
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I agree, with how much they tend to cost i just can't justify it, at least with movies you get the benefit of lossless audio but with shows streaming is fine. |
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Nionel
 Posts: 397 Location: Nebraska |
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I haven't gotten around to this one yet as I haven't had Crunchyroll for a while and they haven't sublicensed it to either Netflix or Hulu yet, but I am interested. My mom watched it as it was airing and loved it, so im sure I'll enjoy it when I get around to it.
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tintor2
 Posts: 2250 |
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It's a shame Netflix hasn't taken this series when they are even putting Frieren this March. Still, there is no denial that Maomao is probably one of most unique leading characters ever.
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2455 |
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Well, except when they’ve got early-1700s imports from other countries and a guy developing a mid-1700s alloy. Alongside Tang Dynasty women’s fashion. And I keep wishing I could ask a Chinese history expert just when the last time was that mokkan and such were used as much as they are in this setting, in comparison to paper. (It’s internally consistent for the most part — paper is treated as common, and standard for most official purposes, but still pricey enough that wood strips see a lot of use. I’m just wondering what era it really reflects, if any.)
I’m a little puzzled by this bit. Shin only appears briefly in these episodes, has no real lines, and is never named. More to the point, the conflict you describe has nothing to do with her directly. The ladies-in-waiting who cause Maomao all that grief do so because, like you say, they see her and her treatments as below their exalted Lihua-sama — as you know (and have since long before the anime got there, novel reader that you are), Shin’s own feelings about her mistress are very different.
I think you accidentally a word.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Emi Lo’s performance, but I’ve listened to this show in Japanese so much that it just sounds weird hearing it in English… and above all else, I can’t imagine anyone but Aoi Yuuki as Maomao. If she’s ever had a better performance, in all these years since Murasaki Kuhouin, I don’t think I’ve heard it.
You know, it’s funny how language works — this got me wondering if it’s quite the right term. The show’s art direction has always been spot-on, and the animation is always at least good, but I don’t know if I’d call the latter “spectacular” in these episodes, at least in the literal sense of being a spectacle. For my money — and I think a lot of people would agree — the most “spectacular” animation this show’s yet had is a scene later on, in episode 24. (The previous episode also has that scene in the rain I think is underrated visually, and of course there’d been some big ol’ spectacle a few episodes before.) In these episodes, for the most part you can tell Naganuma’s conserving his animators’ time, especially in cases like the Three Princesses’ performance in episode 12. Outside of “Hana ni Natte”, the one really incredible standout in animation terms is episode 4, whose greatest successes there are in the quiet moments like Maomao tasting the emperor’s food or waving to Xiaolan. The sort of thing animation nerds gush over, but that don’t get spread all over social media like “Hinokami” did in 2019. The Apothecary Diaries is often visually spectacular — the color, the shot layouts, the compositing — but in a way that doesn’t actually depend that much on showing movement in an impressive way. Hell, the big moment that sticks with people in episode 18 is two frames, and one of my favorite ends to an episode is the still shot that ends episode 17. And then we get into how a lot of the most memorable visuals are the gags that don’t require much animation at all. …I wrote all that late last night, and I'm not sure now if it actually makes sense, or if it just comes off as almost 300 words of pedantic rambling, in response to two words of a review of something the reviewer and I both love. Ah well, I'll leave it in. |
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shosakukan
Posts: 345 |
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Based on historical relics, in the mid-2010s, Professor Tomiya Itaru, who is a Sinologist, said that the latest kandoku (a term which covers mokkan and the bamboo version of mokkan) in China were kandoku which had been used in the Dōngjìn period. In fact, it is said that in the Dōngjìn period warlord Huán Xuán, who dominated the capital of Dōngjìn, ordered officials to stop using kandoku as a medium for writing for official documents. In the 2020s, a few Táng-period mokkan have been excavated in China, but the ruin which had those mokkan is in the Xīnjiāng Uygur Autonomous Region, rather than in Zhōngyuán (the Central Plain). Tángliùdiǎn, a High Táng-period book on laws and government, says that a few kinds of imperial statements should be written on kandoku or silk. (It says other imperial statements should be written on paper.) Tángliùdiǎn says:
Professor Kojima Hiroyuki, a scholar who studies ancient Chinese documents, has said that regarding the main medium for writing ancient China completely changed from kandoku to paper in Táng period. So, as of this point in time, judging from relics and documents, it would be a reasonable surmise that in the Central Plain ancient China ceased to use kandoku as the principal medium for writing, at least for official documents, at the latest in the Táng period. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18592 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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You could argue a case that Tanya (from Saga of Tanya the Evil) and The Spider (from So I'm a Spider, So What?) are on the same level as feature roles, as well as Clementine (Overlord) as a guest role. But yeah, I would certainly include Maomao among Aoi Yuki's career highlights. I do like Emi Lo's performance as Maomao, too, but for me the stand-out English performance is Kaiji Tang as Jinshi. Everyone's favorite "eunuch" has maybe the widest emotional range of any character in the first season, and Tang nails it all. |
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